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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Electron beam welding experiments for bursting disc assemblies. Project DRAGON

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:4118348

Special Bursting Disc Assemblies which have a leak rate <10 -8atmospheric cm3/s, are required for the Dragon Helium Purification Plant. The pressure on the secondary side of these assemblies may normally vary between 0 and 3 atmospheres but it is necessary to protect the assemblies against pressures higher than 24 atmospheres on the primary side, i.e., the discs should burst at 24 atmospheres. This system would be unreliable with the secondary pressure varying as it does. Therefore, it is proposed to use two discs in series, as can be seen from the principal assembly design in Fig. 1. As long as the discs are intact and provided there is no leakage, the void in between them will stay at a constant pressure, thereby preventing disc No. 1 from rupturing at any other pressure than the required one. If then, disc No. 1 bursts, the second disc will follow automatically because this one is chosen to burst at a much lower pressure. The disc holder is designed so that disc No. 2 cannot burst the wrong way if there should be any unexpected pressure rise on the secondary side of the assembly. During fault conditions the pressure could rise to 20 atmospheres. The usual assemblies where the discs are only clamped onto the holder were found to be inadequate for the purpose, because they were not up to the required leak tightness standard. The Dragon High Temperature Techniques Group was asked by the Dragon Engineering Division, to find out if it would be possible to electron beam weld very thin discs to solid slugs for the purpose of making special bursting disc assemblies.

Research Organization:
Atomic Energy Establishment (AEE), Winfrith, England (United Kingdom)
Sponsoring Organization:
Atomic Energy Establishment (AEE)
NSA Number:
NSA-24-039610
OSTI ID:
4118348
Report Number(s):
DP-Report--198
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English